Japanese phone maker Sony's Xperia Z2 smartphone has been hit by delays due to a third-party manufacturing glitch, and will now be released on May 1, The Inquirer reports.

In a statement, Sony confirmed the delay, but said that pre-orders placed through its key partners will be fulfilled in April as planned. A spokesperson said, "Xperia Z2 will be available in the UK during April and we are expecting to deliver to all consumers who have placed a pre-order through our key partners. "We are working tirelessly to maximise stock levels in April but currently we do not expect to meet the high demand across all our sales channels."

The Sony Xperia Z2 was unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) earlier this year, and improves on its Xperia Z1 predecessor with a larger 5.2in HD 1080p screen, a nippier quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and a thin 8.2mm casing.